The present invention relates to a device for the tight crossing of a partition or bulkhead by a member, such as a member for transmitting into an enclosure movements created outside the latter, whilst maintaining the seal of said enclosure.
Certain operations have to be carried out in tight enclosures, where it must be possible to control or monitor the operating conditions such as the atmosphere, temperature and pressure. These operations may necessitate handling processes, requiring the presence of appropriate means controlled by motors. However it is not always possible to place such motors within enclosures, particularly due to the space which they take up, the pollution which they produce and/or the incompatibility of the operating conditions with the operation of said motors.
For example, the production process for monocrystalline or polycrystalline parts described in EP-A-653 504 must be performed in a tight enclosure, because it involves high temperatures requiring a controlled atmosphere to avoid the oxidation and pollution of the parts produced. Moreover, this process requires the handling of monocrystalline or polycrystalline parts during the manufacture thereof, so as to subject them to at least one translation movement perpendicular to the pulling direction of said parts, so as to give them more or less complex shapes.
Therefore the problem is to transfer to the interior of a tight enclosure movements produced by motors located outside the enclosure, whilst respecting the confinement and seal of the enclosure.